Welcome to the folking.com review section.
The folking review team is a small, dedicated group of people with a passion and a commitment for the folk, acoustic and Americana music scene. They review the latest releases, each in their own inimitable style…
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CERI JUSTICE – Walk In Shadow (own label)
Having released her punchy, rocky debut back in 2019, the Irish-blood Solihull singer-songwriter returns keeping the power still pretty much turned up with her vocals at times reminiscent of the raunchier side of Carol Decker. While playing live she has a band backing, Walk In Shadow is, save for strings ...
YOKO PWNO – Part Machine (Skye Records SRCDX010)
Yoko Pwno released Part Machine on April 1st. This is the band’s second album following 2019’s Artefacts and they’ve added a couple more members on flute and tenor banjo to the fiddles, synths, percussion and guitar of their earlier work. Have you ever wondered what it might be like if ...
THE WARDENS – Sold Out At The Ironwood (own label)
Does what it says on the tin. The Wardens are wardens, a trio of Canadian National Park Wardens who started playing in 2009. Sold Out At The Ironwood is their third full length album and has led to a Canadian Folk Music Awards nomination. The themes of the Wardens’ songs ...
THE BROTHERS GILLESPIE – The Merciful Road (own label)
Listening to The Brothers Gillespie’s third album, The Merciful Road, I found myself reflecting on why I love folk music. Of course, there are lots of reasons, but among them is a sense of place. In folk, it matters where a musician comes from, and it matters that James and ...
TEMPEST – Going Home (Celtodelic)
Tempest’s new album, Going Home, is alive with Celtic and Scandinavian folk nuances, which are all framed with really nice electric eclectic gusto. It’s just an idea, but so many of these festival Celtic (and oft time punk!) bands just turn the amps to ten and then play really loud ...
BAILEY BIGGER – Coyote Red (Madjack)
Touted as the next big thing from Memphis (though she’s now back living in smalltown Marion, Arkansas), Bigger’s debut album, Coyote Red, is a hugely infectious, melodically catchy collection of country Americana sung in an appealing reedy voice occasionally reminiscent of Judy Collins with an ear for that old time ...
PARIS TO KYIV – Prairie Nights And Peacock Feathers (Olesia Productions)
Paris To Kyiv’s still pertinent Prairie Nights And Peacock Feathers was released in 2000, and in their own words, fuses Ukrainian music with “Medieval Slavic chants, dance tunes inspired by Carpathian Mountain fiddlers and blind bandura players, original compositions, and (of course) ancient songs with roots in the Neolithic”. Indeed, ...
HANNAH SANDERS & BEN SAVAGE – Ink Of The Rosy Morning (Topic TSCD610)
I was captivated from the moment I first heard the single and opening track of this album. The powerful harmonies of ‘Winter’s Night’ set the scene for what is to come on Ink Of The Rosy Morning. It’s a fine song in any version I’ve heard but Hannah and Ben ...
SINGLES BAR 76 – A round-up of recent EPs and singles
Currently on the English Folk Expo artist scheme, BEN & DOM are an a cappella vocal duo (the former the high notes, the latter the low) from South London, their debut self-released EP Shoulder a collection of self-penned, traditional folk styled songs about male expression, covering themes such as friendship, ...
THE WEATHER STATION – How Is It That I Should Look At The Stars (Fat Possum Records)
The Weather Station’s album How Is It That I Should Look At The Stars simmers with the very personal 70’s folk music purity that (long ago!) required vinyl-grooved patience but also rewarded with counter-culture dividends of introspection, intense beauty, and a fierce devotion to any artist who wrote songs about ...
ANNA HOWIE – The Friday Night Club (INHOUSECD1)
The Friday Night Club is Anna Howie’s debut album, to be released on March 25th. Its title is born from lockdown – Howie livestreamed every Friday at 6:30 and apparently went on to have two million views of the streams. It’s not a surprise, the album has eleven original songs ...
LANDON LLOYD MILLER – Light Shines Through (own label)
Texas singer-songwriter Landon Lloyd Miller’s Light Shines Through is a warm and joyous folk rock record that simply spins with wonderful sonic bliss that, from time to time, passes (with hope eternal!) into that dark side of humanity’s moon. The first song, ‘Light Is Growing’, has a Paul Simon vibe, ...
TOM DELANY – The Lark’s Call (own label)
The Lark’s Call, is the debut solo album from uillean piper Tom Delany, and it’s one for the purist. No fusion or electronic wizardry here – just Irish traditional music, on traditional instruments, and played beautifully. The quality of the musicianship is no surprise because – although this is a ...
TRACK DOGS – Where To Now? (Monde Green MGRD122)
Based in Madrid and now entering their 16th year together, the quartet follow up 2019’s Fire On The Rails with a dozen songs and a dozen guests for an album, Where To Now?, their seventh under this name, that is equally introspective and upbeat. They kick off in latter mode ...
EMMA GALE – Emma Gale (By Example Records BEX1)
A self-described accidental indie folk artist, the Dorset born singer-songwriter’s debut album (her background includes acoustic covers duo/trio Galeforce) started out as an eclectic cocktail of styles before gradually transforming into different shades of Americana. Produced by Boo Hewerdine, who also contributes alongside Chris Pepper, Melvin Duffy, Tanya Brittain, Robbie ...
IONA LANE – Hallival (own label ILR001CD)
Iona Lane was brought up in the high country. Living in the Yorkshire Dales, holidaying in Scotland, she thanks her parents for dragging her up hills as a child. Her upbringing has now found its voice in her debut album, Hallival, named after a mountain on the Isle of Rum ...
IAN NOE – River Fools & Mountain Saints (Thirty Tiger Records)
Ian Noe’s River Fools & Mountain Saints is a blessing to lovers of dirt road Americana music – performed with a voice that’s a melodic concoction of whisky and sawdust. It’s all here: patched blue jeans melodies, friendly diner conversations over a cup of coffee, a few loyal handshakes, respect ...
PAXTON & MORRIS – Is It Safe Out There? (own label PCMCD001)
Is It Safe Out There? Well, is it safe out there? That’s a question we have all been asking for the past two years and here’s another. Why do Maggie Kenny and Drew Wegg call themselves Paxton & Morris? I had to ask and it transpires that Paxton and Morris ...
EMILY BARKER & LUKAS DRINKWATER – Room 882 (Cooking Vinyl Australia)
Arriving in Australia to visit her family for the first time in two years, Emily and husband Lukas had to spend 14 days in their Perth hotel room under Covid quarantine regulations. So, to pass the time, he suggested recording an album: Room 882. So armed with their guitar and ...
M ROSS PERKINS – E Pluribus M Ross (Karma Chief KCR-12012)
Singer, multi-instrumentalist and self-styled psychedelic songwriter, M Ross Perkins, recently finalized work on his second LP, E Pluribus M Ross. Set for a March 18th release, the album serves as a follow-up to 2018’s What Did You Do For Summer Break EP. From the offset, the Liverpudlian elephant in the ...
ISLAND GIRLS – Beach Daze (May Monday Adventures MMA6327005)
The Island Girls are Margaret Robertson, piano and fiddle, and accordionist Karen Tweed and the islands in question are Orkney where Beach Daze was recorded. Actually, Margaret is from Shetland and Karen moved to Orkney only a few years ago. Margaret isn’t terribly well-known this far south and is more ...
BLACK*SCARR – Last Year’s Joke (own label)
Completed last year but delayed by Covid, Johnny Black and Emma Scarr return, joined by Steve Bottcher, with Last Year’s Joke, another album of wry and largely playful songs centred around middle-age malaise, again with Scarr mostly singing lead and rooted in their cocktail of East London country and folk ...
SINGLES BAR 75 – A round-up of recent EPs and singles
Originally from California and now Nashville-based, ERINN PEET LUKES has enlisted Rachel Baiman to produce her new self-released EPL, a seven-track EP of folksy Americana inspired by the bluegrass music she studied and the pop-rock of her youth, each track taking on a different vibe. It opens with the easy ...
THE LOW DRIFT – The Low Drift (Cwm Saebren Records)
A new folk-based collaboration between Matt Hill aka Quiet Loner with Emma Thorpe and Huw Costin, both of whom worked with the late Mark Lanegan, The Low Drift is probably the only album you’ll encounter written under the guidance of psychogeographers as, inspired by the likes of Julian Cope, Robert ...
ROVING CROWS – Awaken (own label)
Having released a fairly subdued EP during and titled Lockdown, the Celtic rock quartet storm back with guns blazing for their fourth album, everything bar two traditional tunes being self-penned. Awaken opens, Caitlin Barrett’s fiddle firing away and punky guitars chugging, with the anthemic call to arms of ‘Awaken Now’ ...
PETER KNIGHT & JOHN SPIERS – Both In A Tune (KSCD002)
Peter Knight and John Spiers’ second collaboration is the album Both In A Tune - a title borrowed from Shakespeare’s As You Like It (‘Well met, honest gentlemen. I’faith, i’faith; and both in a tune, like gypsies on a horse.’). Recorded and produced by the two much-loved and respected folk ...
THE HAWTTHORNS – Tarot Cards And Shooting Stars (Mule Kick)
Tarot Cards And Shooting Stars, the second HawtThorns album by Nashville husband and wife duo KP (Kirsten Proffit) on lead vocals and acoustic and electric guitarist Johnny Hawthorn pushes their hook-driven Americana into even more radio friendly and supremely assured mainstream country pop territory, thoughts of peak career Fleetwood Mac ...
ANDY IRVINE PAUL BRADY – Andy Irvine Paul Brady (Mulligan LUN CD 3108)
I should say that Andy Irvine Paul Brady has been on my (very long) bucket list for many years. I saw Andy Irvine only once back in the 80s and I was bowled over. I bought several of his later albums but this was either unobtainable or too expensive back ...
AGENT STARLING – Constellation Of Birds (DHM)
A duo comprising Quentin Budworth on hurdy gurdy and bassist Louise Duffy-Howard (aka Lou Loudhailer) respectively based in Bridlington and Hull, with her son Dexter on violin and cello, Agent Starling craft experimental alt-folk that draws as much on traditional influences as it does contemporary sounds, complete with samples. Constellation ...
INNI-K – Iníon (Green Willow Records GW203CD)
Irish singer Inni-K’s Iníon echoes the thoughtful memory of W.B. Yeats’ words, “And I will have peace there, for peace comes dropping slow”. I suppose in some sort of Jungian psychological archetype, we all wish to return to our own ‘Lake Isle Of Innisfree’. And this album certainly warms the ...
IAN DAVID GREEN – Songs From The Wheel (own label)
With Songs From The Wheel, the follow up to his 2021 debut album Songs Of The Sea, in company with multi-instrumentalist Marty Hailey, Su-a Lee on cello, fiddle player Rachel Walker, Marcus Britton on brass and back-ups by Heather Macleod, drawing on such influences as Dylan and Cohen, the Liverpudlian ...
MERRY HELL ACOUSTIC/FLEETWOOD CAVE – live at The Half Moon, Putney.
It’s not often that I begin a live review by waxing lyrical about the support band but Fleetwood Cave impressed me greatly and made a lot of new friends with their set. Furthermore, I have Marion Fleetwood’s permission to say that I think that they are better live. We both ...
DOM PRAG – Needle & Thread (own label)
A rising star on the folk circuit, produced by Phil Beer Needle & Thread, the second album by the Southampton-born singer-songwriter, features three original numbers alongside seven traditional, variously performed solo or with contributions from Odette Michell, Tom Evans (melodeon), cellist Joely Koos from the City of London Sinfonia, and ...
BIRD IN THE BELLY – After The City (GF*M Records GFM0013)
Responding to the pandemic and taking inspiration from Richard Jefferies, the Victorian author of the dystopian After London, Elizabethan playwright Thomas Nashe and poems about the impact of the Lancashire cotton famine of the 1860s, the Brighton-based experimental-folk-noir quartet (multi-instrumentalists Tom Pryor and Adam Ronchetti, flautist Laura Ward whose crystal ...
CARSON McHONE – Still Life (Loose Music)
Carson McHone’s Still Life is a complex tight wired folk-rock tapestry that evokes the organic purity of the 70’s musical quest that always pursued the melody of the perfect circumference of a circular soul. This record haunts those old grooves and vibrates with pretty great tunes. Put simply: This is ...
JOHNNY COPPIN – River Of Dreams (Red Sky Records RSKCD124)
His first album of new material since 2017’s Christmas-themed All On A Winter’s Night, River Of Dreams finds him in company with regular collaborators Paul Burgess, Dik Cadbury, Geoff March, Gareth Sampson, John Broomhall and Mick Candler for a collection of mostly original material, largely written during lockdown and, sung ...
THE LONGEST JOHNS – Smoke + Oakum (Decca 3876697)
Signed to a major label deal on the back of last year’s surprise viral TikTok and Top 40 success of traditional New Zealand folk song ‘Wellerman’ from their 2018 album Between Wind & Water, the Bristol shanty-singing close harmony four piece – Andy Yates, Dave Robinson, Jonathan Darley and Robbie ...
HARRIET RILEY AND ALEX GARDEN – Sonder II (own label HRAG02)
If you delight in placing musicians into pigeonholes you’ll probably need a whole new category for Harriet Riley and Alex Garden. Harriet plays vibraphone and Alex plays violin and octave violin which may sound a bit off-the-wall but really isn’t. They are joined on Sonder II, their second album, by ...
OYSTERBAND – Read The Sky (Running Man Records RMCD8)
It’s been a long time since Oysterband recorded new music but they are back with a vengeance and Read The Sky. If you want to know what it’s about, turn to the last page of the booklet for the inspirational quotation from Emily Dickinson which concludes “and meet the road ...
ELLES BAILEY – Shining in The Half Light (Outlaw Music)
Elles Bailey releases Shining in the Half Light on February 25th. It really ought to be Bailey’s "breakthrough album" – you know: the one where all the rave reviews of live gigs are captured on a recording; the one that transcends genre and appeals to music lovers across the spectrum ...
ALAW – Denwyd I’r Goleuni (Taith Records TRCD00025)
Alaw’s first album, Melody – also the translation of the band’s name – was released nine years ago and their second, Dead Man’s Dance, some four years later. There have been changes since then: Jamie Smith, that ever-present figure in Welsh music, moved on and in the midst of the ...
GABRIEL MORENO – The Year Of The Rat (own label)
Gabriel Moreno is a Gibraltarian poet, songwriter and performer now living in London. The Year Of The Rat is his third album and we can all guess what year he’s talking about. He’s accompanied by The Quivering Poets, a flexible multi-cultural band who bring unexpected musical textures and rich backing ...
STEVIE MAC – Be Under No Illusions (own label)
Arriving in my inbox as an on the off-chance submission, Be Under No Illusions is the first full length album by Belfast singer-songwriter Steve McCullough following a series of EPs and his first new material since 2015, describing it as an “exercise in self-care as I've tried to make sense ...
SUTHERING – If We Turn Away (own label)
Devon-based via Bristol Suthering’s If We Turn Away is an intricate tapestry of English folk music that, for want of a better phrase, simply toys with the buffeting winds of musical gravity. Julu Irving and Heg Brignall (formally known as Julu & Heg) sing with a weird harmonic disquietude, like ...
DLÙ – Moch (ARC Music EUCD2956)
DLÙ will be a new name to many, but since this debut album, Moch, suggests we’ll be hearing more from them, perhaps we should start by getting the pronunciation right. It’s D-loo. Like blue with a D replacing the B. It’s based on the Gaelic word Dluth, meaning close, which ...
KENNETH I MacKENZIE – Glendrian (Caberfeidh Music CMD002)
Kenneth I MacKenzie is not a well-known name in these parts. He’s Scottish, as you might have guessed, a multi-instrumentalist and composer who specialises in whistles and Highland pipes. His new album, Glendrian, takes its name from a deserted settlement in Lochaber and the music ranges across north-west Scotland. Most ...
HARLEY KIMBRO LEWIS – Harley Kimbro Lewis (own label)
Martin Harley, Daniel Kimbro, and Sam Lewis have, in the authentic acoustic words of Canadian Colin Linden, written an album that’s “got the cure”, and indeed, it’s “got the remedy”. And let’s just say, from the heart of mid-western Wisconsin, America needs this music because it is a “remedy”, what ...
RACHEL NEWTON AND LAUREN MacCOLL – Heal & Harrow (SHADOW 05)
Heal & Harrow is an investigation of the persecution of “witches” in Scotland or perhaps a commemoration of their lives. The music is written by Rachel Newton and Lauren MacColl and most of the words come from Màiri Kidd who was commissioned to imagine and write the women’s stories. Other ...
MARK T – Blues @ Zero (Circle Of Sound COS335CD)
Mark T brings his signature mixture of blues, folk and rembetika to his new album, Blues @ Zero, an album of which he’s rightly proud. Mark has had a long career, both as a soloist, band frontman and as a member of Traditional Arts Projects. He first appeared on record ...
BEINN LEE – Deò (Beinn Lee BL21)
Beinn Lee’s Deò is an album filled with Scottish folk music, suspended in their Hogmanay night celebration, with the always New Year’s visitor friendly offering of dark rye bread. Perhaps, that’s just the way true Gaelic music has always meant to be played - and or - baked. The first ...
STEVE NOONAN – Dreamland (own label Z1EHA26A)
Twin Cities singer/ songwriter Steve Noonan is set to release his second, full-length album, Dreamland, on January 29th. An industry veteran, Noonan has been honing his craft for decades. Aside from his dedication to the creative process as a musician and songwriter, Noonan has built up quite the resume on ...
THE TWANGTOWN PARAMOURS – Double Down On A Bad Thing (Inside Edge IER004)
The Twangtown Paramours (what a great name!) release their third album, Double Down On A Bad Thing, on February 4th. The core of the band are husband and wife Mike T Lewis and MaryBeth Zamer from Nashville; Lewis has written nine of the songs and co-written the other three. If ...
SINGLES BAR 74 – A round-up of recent EPs and singles
Cardiff-based label Tŷ Cerdd Records release Hyperion, the debut 3-track EP from CARA LUDLOW, a twenty-something Welsh singer-songwriter and Assistant Producer for Cardiff Productions, developing documentaries and factual programmes for broadcast.. The title track with its caressing melody, sweeping strings by the Mavron Quartet and yearning, softly sung vocals draws ...
THE BLUES AGAINST YOUTH – As The Tide Gets High And Low (Escape From Today EFT087)
The Blues Against Youth is a new name to me and As The Tide Gets High And Low came as a very pleasant diversion. It’s the sixth album by Italian singer/songwriter Gianni Tbay. I’m not sure whether the name or the acronym came first or even if Tbay is his ...
JAMESTOWN REVIVAL – Young Man (own label)
Produced by Texas singer/songwriter Robert Ellis (who also plays on the album), Young Man is the first album by the Texas quintet led by founder members Zach Chance and Jonathan Clay to be recorded in a proper studio, featuring fiddle on all tracks, and no electric guitar. Anchored around theme ...
AOIFE O’ DONOVAN – Age Of Apathy (Yep Roc Records)
Aoife O’ Donovan’s new album, Age Of Apathy, is a wonderful and very modern American folk record that allows earthy acoustic instruments to float with a soft helium touch. It’s just a biographical (and tangential) idea, but Aoife's music is in cahoots with the scientific string theory, which states (thank ...
BURBRIDGE AND BOOTH – Icons (ICONSICD)
It’s an odd thing how a piece of music can take you to a particular place or mood or part of life. And there’s something very important about this. I’ll return to these points. Nick Burbridge, musician (McDermott’s 2 Hours) and writer, Dan Booth, fiddle player and founder member of ...
TRIP – A Drop for Neptune (Trip Music Records CD001)
The contemporary Scottish folk scene definitely isn’t short of talent, and this debut album from Glasgow based band Trip, further demonstrates the scene’s robust health. Crowd funded and recorded during lockdown, A Drop for Neptune is inspired by something that connects us all – the sea. And it’s very impressive ...
MEGAN HENDERSON – Pilgrim Souls (own label MHM01CD)
Megan Henderson is a fiddler, pianist, singer and composer and a member of one of Scotland’s finest bands – Breabach. Surprisingly, Pilgrim Souls is her first solo album and she has been able to recruit some of Scotland’ top talent to support her: Mairi Campbell, Su-a Lee, Laura Beth Salter, ...
NITEWORKS – A’ Ghrian (Comann Music CM006)
It must be admitted that folk-electronica is (like most electronica) a genre that has passed me by up to now, so although A' Ghrian (released on 14th January 2022) is the latest of a number of releases by Niteworks, it's the first to have found its way onto my CD ...
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